NJCULCEODavidFrankilMakestheCaseforCURegReliefinRecentROI-NJArticle

The changes to the Dodd-Frank Act included in S.2155 were “the best thing to happen to community banks and credit unions in some time,” a recent article in ROI-NJ points out. In the article, New Jersey Credit Union League President/CEO David Frankil explains that credit unions were greatly burdened by certain aspects of Dodd-Frank. “One of the challenges we’ve always had, which was amplified by Dodd-Frank, is that credit unions get lumped into the same category as Wells Fargo or Bank of America when it comes to regulations,” Frankil said. “We didn’t cause the crisis; we’re the good guys. It was kind of like adding insult to injury to be treated as though we were the problem.”

"The new law apparently doesn’t do any favors for big financial institutions. But the banks that hold the largest amounts of assets in the country also have the resources to invest in teams of compliance professionals in recent years," Frankil said.

“But, at a small credit union, it’s very common today to have a CEO just overwhelmed with everything he or she needs to do to keep up with compliance,” Frankil added. “So, from that perspective, anything that reduces the regulatory burden is music to their ears.”

John McWeeney, CEO and president of NJBankers, echoes Frankil’s sentiments when it comes to community banks. “What it is, is good, common-sense legislation. It’s recognition that community banks were not involved in what led to financial crisis, and that some of the rules and regulations that have reached a little too far need to be right-sized.

“This is not actually a gutting of Dodd-Frank,” he said. “A lot of those regulations remain in place. It makes some changes on the margins to rules and regulations that weren’t stimulating economic activity. It wouldn’t have been supported on a bipartisan basis otherwise.”